Lockhart’s Memory Is Refreshed

When Eric Dickerson of the Rams was a running back at Southern Methodist University, Eugene Lockhart of the Dallas Cowboys was a linebacker at the University of Houston.

The other day, Lockhart told Jim Dent of the Dallas Times Herald: “I don’t like Eric Dickerson one bit. Never have. We’ve had a grudge on with each other that’s been going on since college. There is no love lost here for that guy.”

He added: “We’d start talking trash to each other even before the game got started. We also had plenty to say to each other during the game. And he never did well against us. I think he had 100 yards against us only once. Look it up.”

Dent did, and discovered that Dickerson twice went over 100 yards against Houston. In the 1982 game, in fact, he had his greatest day as a collegian, netting 247 yards.

Saturday at Anaheim Stadium, Dickerson went that one better with 248 yards against the Cowboys. Nobody in the history of the National Football League playoffs ever gained as much.

You can look it up.

Bill Veeck’s promotional genius helped the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago White Sox set all-time attendance records, but he didn’t have much luck with the woeful St. Louis Browns.

Ira Berkow of the New York Times recalled being with Veeck one day in St. Louis when the owner asked somebody to come to a Browns game.

“What time does it start?” said the person.

“What time’s convenient?” said Veeck.

Trivia Time: In the final regular-season game of 1972, Dave Hampton of the Atlanta Falcons went over 1,000 yards in rushing, but he wasn’t celebrating afterward. Why? (Answer below.)

Said safety Kenny Hill of the New York Giants, promising to play today against the Chicago Bears despite a knee injury: “We won’t be hindered. Adrenaline is a remarkably potent endorphin.”

Webster’s defines endorphin as “any of several peptides secreted in the brain, that have a pain-relieving effect like that of morphine.”

Hill is comfortable with such words. He graduated from Yale with a degree in molecular biophysics.

Note: The Bears also have a Yale graduate at safety in Gary Fencik. Is that a playoff record?

Said ESPN basketball analyst Bill Raftery after the officials called a couple of ticky-tack fouls early in the Pittsburgh-Georgetown game: “The refs want to make sure the pea is in the whistle.”

Milwaukee Buck Coach Don Nelson, who played with Bill Russell, said of 7-7 Manute Bol of the Washington Bullets: “He’s the best shot blocker I’ve ever seen. Russell, obviously, was better at a lot of other things, but for just shot blocking, I’ve never seen anybody who was a bigger factor.”

Tony Collins, once the leading rusher for the New England Patriots, now is primarily a receiver with the emergence of Craig James as a runner, but he’s not complaining.

“I always wanted to catch the ball when I was younger,” he said. “I thought the wide receivers were the coolest guys on the team. They were always standing around looking pretty.”

Trivia Answer: After raising his total to 1,001 yards, Hampton carried one more time and lost six yards. He wound up the season with 995 yards.

Quotebook

Dan Hampton, 6-5 defensive tackle of the Chicago Bears, on the difficulty of tackling 5-7 Joe Morris of the New York Giants: “I’ve got a 39-inch in-seam, and I think he’s 38 inches tall.”